Almost Finished

Okay, as you know I'm re-decorating the house.  And I think I'm nearing the finish of the 1st floor.  I've still got the living room curtains and the dining room drapes to hang but I did finish what I wanted to do with the floors.  I love lots of rugs, preferably Persian.

We have a bunch of authentic Persian rugs (from Iran) that my mother was able to get into the country via Diplomatic Pouch (which is not searched) and so she gave both me and Blaine some.  (She herself has a boatload of them.)  It's illegal to have them as there's an embargo between the US and Iran but we wanted some real Persian rugs and by God we have them.  So I layered them, Persian style, all over each other, overlapping them like they do in the Middle East. 

I am pretty thrilled to be able to finally lay them down.  And I'm trying to decorate things with a touch of a Middle Eastern look, which is the home decor that I grew up in.  It's nostalgic and comforting to me.

Also, I have tried to put plants I've brought in for the winter in areas where they will get light.

(You can click on the pics to make them larger.)

Here's one area  (and the Persian rug is the huge red one underneath the leopard rugs)  (and the cats' scratcher thing doesn't really "add" to the decor but it's better to have them scratch their claws on that rather than the Persian rugs....):

Here's a close-up of the an area I already showed you ---but I have changed some things.

Here's my favorite Persian one:





Here's another Persian one in the middle of the two rugs  (the rugs to the right and left are not Persian rugs):

And still yet another Persion rug in front of the dining room table (and this one's my favorite because my mother picked this one out for me personally because it has horse heads in it--you have to look closely):

Aside from Persian rugs, I have some authentic Indian blankets.  They are the blankets I had on my bed when I went to an American boarding school in India when my parents were stationed on the island of Sri Lanka.  

(Um....I had my first mental breakdown while at that particular boarding school and my mother had to come and get me....but let's not speak of that.  So I ended up finishing high school by mail, on the island of Sri Lanka where the Embassy and other missions had installed a study room with a proctor for all children who were doing their school lessons  by mail.  My sister and I completed our work through the University of Nebraska High School Extension Division, link here.  The website doesn't mention diplomatic children, probably because there so few of us---most of the American students there were military brats.  Also, there were kids from other countries in that room, many from England and also Germany.)  

Here's the love seat.  I really love the green blanket the best due to the metallic gold thread.  But I do like the blue one, too.  Since the love seat doesn't match the decor I tried to cover it up with the blankets.  Sometime in the future we'll get a matching couch and loveseat but I'm doing the best I can with what I have right now.  All throw pillows you see in all these pictures are from Syria.



And here's one of the china cabinets into which I put collectibles-- safe from the cats.  I have my prized Paint Ponies Collection up in there. (link here to the Home website of the Paint Ponies-- and I like the Native American ones the best:) (And someone started a cow collection for me.  The two I have are on the bottom shelf, and one of them is this one (link here): 

Here's an area I completed and have given you a picture of already, but I added some more things to it---(and there's no rug here--- I added some plants and a statue:) 

Here's a little desk area so that Blaine won't strew his things all over the place.  Notice the green basket---that's for all his keys, cell phone, work badge, and other small things.  It keeps things neat.  I still haven't hung the pics and drawings of my father over that area but I'll get there.  The lit up thing is a lighted snail lamp.  And the china cabinets are lighted.

Here's one of the kitchen rugs.  It's plain---not a Persian rug:

Here's another rug by Blaine's sack lunch prep station:

And below is an area I don't know what to do with.  The couch doesn't match and so I threw a bunch of throw pillows there just to see if I could make the situation better.  But it doesn't look good.  Waaaaahhhh.

I still have some more work to do on the hearth top, the living room curtains, and the drapes for the dining room glass sliding doors, but that will be fairly soon....I hope.  Only when the downstairs is completely finished will Blaine paint the upstairs and I can do the master bedroom and bath.

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